Wednesday, October 24, 2012

Here is a photo strip and descrription of the process for making my Saxton Energized Aether Airship Goggles.

I started out with a regular pair of cup style welding goggles and painted them with Krylon fusion paint so other colors would stick. The screen for one lens is plastic mesh that I later painted silver and cut to fit inside the lens ring. I took one of the clear lenses and cut a hole with a hand drill so the plastic jewler's loup would fit through but still leave enough sticking out the back so it could be glued. I then spread Goop glue all around the join and made it look rough and lumpy. Masking the lens on the loup with painter's tape I then sprayed this assembly with black Krylon fusion and let it dry for 24 hours.

Antique Gold Rub N Buff was used to rag finish the cups to make them look like old metal and I then drilled holes to add the electronic looking bits. Silver Rub N Buff was used to finish off the extended looking lens and because I didn't cover all of the black it looks like old welded metal. My partner sewed a hat band from old discontinued fabric stock and when everything was put together you have the goggles with the adventurer hat.

Saturday, October 13, 2012

I have been working on adapting some new artwork for gauge instrument faces that I am going to use in making my own steampunk gauges for my goggles and other equipment. I have pulled most of these from around the internet so I am not really sure where they came from. The images are also fairly small because I am trying to see if they can be printed on a much smaller scale to fit inside tiny metal cases that will not be too combersome on a pair of cup style welding goggles.

Some of these I have modified in photoshop partially just to try to add age and sometimes a little dirt to get a good effect. I think having more grungy looking instruments works well for steampunk and it's overall effect.

Monday, October 8, 2012

The latest update on the Sellstrom goggles is this comparison of the paint versus the unpainted mask. I was able to get the goggles cleaned up then buffed them all over with some fine grain sandpaper to make a surface that paint could grab onto. These shots include what they look like with two layers of regular acrylic Mars Black painted on as an undercoat for the rub n buff which will be applied later.

Note too that I don't have all of the layers of lens shields back in the painted versions yet. I am going to be working on them pretty soon to add some of the new components. Here is the outermost shield, the one that happens to have all of the tint to it, and the other big parts that I will most likely base the design off of.

My idea right now is to drill holes into the lens and attach the faux plastic lens onto it so there is more equipment protruding forward to make these goggles even longer than they were originally. I have also considered trying more lenses on the other half of this dark plate or maybe a different larger lens with a somewhat stranger look than the one in the pic.